Genesis 21, 1-21
Abraham and Sarah have plenty to celebrate. God has been good to them! The ninety-one year-old Sarah gives birth to a healthy baby boy and the hundred-year-old Abraham delights in performing the duties of a father – circumcision on the eighth day and throwing a big party when the baby is weaned.
But, there's an “elephant in the room” in the form of the clumsy, goofy teenager Ishmael. He's a constant reminder of a mistake – or a series of mistakes – Abraham and Sarah have made. Desperate for the fulfilment of God's “Plan A” and promise to give them a son, Sarah had concocted a “Plan B,” and given her slave-girl Hagar to Abraham as a very inferior second wife. Abraham had accepted this, and Hagar had duly produced Ishmael. He's there, fourteen years old, when Isaac is born. He's there, two or three years later when Isaac is weaned and Abraham throws a big party.
And Ishmael is laughing at Isaac – not playing with him (RSV) but at the very least teasing him (NLT) or (more likely) generally mocking the whole proceedings (AV, NIV are correct; the Hebrew does not say who Ishmael was laughing at). I believe this is more consistent with what we know of Hagar's character and of the dynamics of the relationship between Hagar and her masters. And it seems to have been passed on to young Ishmael: you can imagine the jokes between mother and son – especially if you've been in a family or a workplace which thrives on mockery. And mockery comes so naturally to teenagers.
So it looks like the whole sordid problem of “Plan B” was still staring Abraham and Sarah in the face, even at their kid's big celebration.
Then, it seems, Sarah has a “hissy fit”. Abraham has seen that look before: his wife's eyes narrow to little slits, her face hardens, her hands tremble slightly, and there are a few moments of terrible silence; then she says “Get that woman and her brat out of here: "he will never take even a share of my Isaac's inheritance.”
What is poor Abraham going to do? This seems so wrong. He has a pattern of doing what Sarah tells him to; but he loves the boy and has some feelings of decency towards Hagar. He's troubled. He wants to do what Sarah says. But still it seems so wrong. Understandably he is struggling to decide what to do. Then God speaks and tells Abraham “Do what Sarah says”. Emotionally and morally, how could he? And how could God? Does God condone the abandonment of Isaac and ultimate betrayal of Hagar who has been used abominably by Abraham and Sarah?
Remember this wasn't a mess of God's making. God's “Plan A” was for Abraham and Sarah to become parents by having Isaac. Ishmael was the result of “Plan B.” God was working around, and unpicking the consequences of, Abraham's and Sarah's mess.
And there were plenty of consequences. Sarah may have feared for young Isaac: Ishmael was much older than Isaac and had, it seems, picked up his mother's contempt for Abraham and Sarah. He could have been a threat to his younger half-brother. There were consequences for Abraham – the sorrow and pain of separation from Ishmael. And for Hagar it was being the despised and misused slave girl; for Ishmael being an unwanted child. Our “Plan B” strategies have consequences. Unbelief has a way of leaving footprints.
Paul says in Romans 8, “For we know that to his loved ones, God co-operates or assists all things into good, for those being welcomed or invited according to his purpose.” God works all things out, assists all things – even the bad things – to produce good. Even Sarah's scheming unbelief, and jealousy; even Hagar's and Ishmael's foolish mocking, and Abraham’s weakness and fear, God didn’t send them; he didn't even use them; but he worked them into his design.
There is a story (possibly made up) told of a piano concert, given by the great Padrewski: before it began a small boy gave distracted parents the slip and found his way onto the stage, sat down and started plonking out “Twinkle Twinkle little star” with one finger. Padrewski appeared on stage, stood behind the wee boy and surrounded the boy's inept playing with a wonderful variation. That is what God does all the time, with our mistakes. He weaves them into his tapestry. That is what God was doing here. Not inflicting evil on Hagar and Ishmael; but using the situation for his glory
God goes on, then, to say, “Through Isaac shall your descendants be named.” (v12) Abraham had grounds to know that, now. Because there sits Isaac, a chubby three-year-old eating solid food. God had already done what he said. Three times, just in case we don't notice, verses 1 and 2 repeat that Isaac’s birth was “as God had said”. God had said, all along. God would give Abraham a whole nation of descendants through Isaac. That was the plan.
And then God speaks about Ishmael: “I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.” So, Ishmael is going to be OK, too. Abraham has good, solid grounds for figuring that, if The Lord could give Abraham and Sarah an Isaac in their old age, as he had said, he could look after Ishmael, protect him and make him a nation too, as he had said.
And in the purpose of God, what Sarah said “Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac” was a prophecy. Paul quotes Sarah's words in Gal 4. 30 Sarah meant it out of jealousy or fear. God used it to bring out a vital principle for every God-seeker in every age. It is the child of faith, not the child of human effort, that inherits eternal life and the Kingdom of God. We need to be children of the Spirit not children of the Flesh. God keeps his promises. Life in the Spirit – trusting God and seeing Him at work instead of trusting ourselves, is a possibility.
If you want to connect with God, to have a relationship with the creator of the universe, a life that will survive to eternity, you need to receive that by Spirit not flesh. Jesus once had a visit from a very “religious” man who stayed up late studying the Bible and tried to live a good life. But still he wasn't sure he had eternal life. Jesus said to him “You need to be born again – a miracle done by God's Spirit inside you.” Ask God to send his Spirit to you to make you a new person.
And if you're desire is to serve God today, to use your gifts, to reach broken people , to bring family members to know Him, to know his healing; to see the Church alive and growing like Abraham's family – it happens by Spirit not flesh. God is faithful, he keeps his promises. He “does chesedh – steadfast love and mercy,” Trust him and walk in his way – he will do what he promised.
I guess it is still with a heavy heart that Abraham packs Hagar and Ishmael off, with about as much as they could carry for the journey. And the rest of the story tells how God is looking after Hagar and her son, right up to the point where, leaning on each other, the young man collapses and his mother puts him in the shade of a shrub, and God opens her eyes to see the water he has provided. He keeps the promise he had made to Abraham about the boy. Ishmael is going to be OK. He is going to make it. At the end of the section we find him settled down and married.
We should avoid making the oft-repeated comment that “we are still suffering for Abraham's mistake today”. God loved that boy and preserved him; God looked after him. If he is the father of the Arab race, then God loves the Arab and wants to bless the Arab with the same blessing that comes through Abraham to all the nations of the earth.
But Abraham didn't see that. He had to let Ishmael go. His journey – the flip side of the joy and excitement of seeing God keep his covenant – was marked by relinquishment. At this point it was Ishmael. There would be other “letting go” moments. Walking by faith involves a letting go of anything and everything that gets in the way of our relationship with God, anything and everything that we trust in, instead of trusting God.
© Gilmour Lilly June 2015
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